Trolley-guide



, UNITED STATES ATENT Prion,

WILLIAM E. JACKSON, JR, OF AUGUSTA, GEORGIA.

TROLLEY-GUIDE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 450,489, dated April 14, 1891.

Application filed November 14, 1890. Serial No. 371,443. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, VILLIAM E. JACKSON, Jr., of Augusta, in the county of Richmond and State of Georgia, have invented a new and Improved Trolley-Guide, of which the following; is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to improvements in guides for that class of trolleys which are used in connection with the overhead system of electric railways. It is well known that the circuit is closed through the car-mo tors by means of atrolleyeonnecting with an overhead wire, and owing to the jolting of the car and to other causes the trolley is likely to leave the wire and difficulty is experienced in replacing it. Moreover, when the trolley leaves the wire it is liable to come in contact with a cross-arm by which the wire is suspended, thus breaking the arm or injuring the trolley.

The object of my invention is to obviate these difliculties by producing a guide which will automatically hold the trolley wheel against the wire, or if it is removed will cause it to come back immediately to place, which guide, having placed the wheel in proper position,will automatically drop below the trolley-wire out of the way of overhead supports to aforesaid trolley-wire.

To this end my invention consists in certain features of construction and combinations of parts, which will be hereinafter fully described, and then pointed out in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a broken side elevation showing the application of the trolley-guide to a trolley and wire. Fig. 2 is a broken plan view of the trolley-guide in position upon atrolley, and Fig. 3 is a detail plan view of the trolleyguide.

The linewvire Ais stretched above the railway in the ordinary way, and the trolleywheel B runs upon the under side of the wire, being supported upon the trolley-pole O in the usual manner. Pivoted on opposite sides of the trolley-pole 0, immediately beneath the trolley-wheel B, are the similar arms D, which are of non-conducting material, the arms besides of the wheels for the wire to pass.

ing pivoted to the pole, as shown at d,- and then curved in front of the pole and brought together and bolted, as shown at d, and from thence the forward ends of the arms diverge and are curved downwardly, the extreme ends being connected by spiral springs E with the base of a magnet, as described below. The arms D are also curved around the under or rear portion of the trolley-pole, as shown at CF, and are then curved upwardly to approximate the shape of the trolley-wheel and are parallel until they reach the connecting-strip (1 which serves to strengthen them, and from this point the arms diverge and are curved backwardly, as best shown in Fig. 1. It will be seen that the arms are brought as nearly as possible to the sides of the wheel B until they reach the connecting-strip (1 so that the diverging rear ends of the arms will serve to guide the wheel upon the wire. This will be readily accomplished, as there is not sufficient space between the'arms and the The arms D are connected immediately in the rear of the trolley-pole bya flat strip F, which serves as an armature.

A magnet G of high resistance is strapped to the pole 0 immediately below the armature F, the magnet being held to the pole by the strap g and the base G, to which it is fixed, the base being bolted to the pole, and the magnet is preferably arranged in a shunteircuit from the main line in the same manner that the car-lights are usually connected, being connected with the line-wire h, which leads to the motors and with the groundwire h.

The lower ends of the springs E are connected to the magnet-base G and the operation of the guide is as follows: \Vhen the trolley-wheel B is in contact with the mainlinewire A, the current will be shunted through the magnet, and the magnet, acting on the armature F, will pull down the rear ends of the arms D and elongate the front springs E; but the instant the trolley-wheel leaves the wire the circuit will be broken, and the springs, pulling downward upon the forward end of the arms, will throw the arms into the position indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. 1, so that the arms will straddle the wire and serve to guide the wheel back into place. The

guide, having placed the wheel in proper position, will automatically drop below the trolley-wire out of the way of overhead supports to said wire.

Having thus fully described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. The combination, with the trolley pole and wheel, of a guide or finder pivoted to the pole below the wheel and provided with an armature, an electro-magnet on the upper end of the pole and normally holding the guide or finder depressed, and means for throwing the guide or finder upward upon the release of the armature, substantially as set forth.

2. The combination, with the trolley pole and wheel, of a guide or finder pivoted to the trolley-pole below its wheel and provided with an armature, an electro-magnet arranged in a shunt-circuit from the main line and secured to the upper end of the pole under the guide or finder to hold it depressed, and a spring throwing the finder upward when the armature is released, substantially as set forth.

3. The combination, with a trolley pole and wheel, of spring-pressed diverging arms pivoted on the pole so as to embrace the wheel and extend above the same, an armature carried by the arms, an electro-magnet beneath the arms, and the electrical connections. sub stantially as described.

4. A trolley-guide comprising two curved arms adapted to be pivoted on the opposite sides of a trolley-pole and adapted to extend normally above the trolley-wheel, said arms having an armature thereon, as shown, and a magnet supported beneath the armature and arranged in a shunt-circuit from the main line, substantially as described.

5. The combination, with a trolley pole and wheel, of curved spring-pressed arms pivoted to the pole so as to extend above the wheel,

said arms having an armature thereon, as shown, and a magnet supported beneath the armature and arranged in a shunt-circuit from the main line, substantially as described.

6. The combination, with a trolley pole and wheel, of two similar curved spring-pressed arms pivoted on opposite sides of the trolleypole so as to extend normally above the trolley-wheel, said arms being connected in front and rear of the pole and having an armature on their under sides in the rear of the pole, and a magnet supported on the pole beneath the armature and arrangedin a shunt-circuit from the main line, substantiallyas described.

7. The combination, with the trolley pole and wheel, of similar arms pivoted on opposite sides of the pole, said arms being bent around the front of the pole and connected together and having their outer ends spread, as described, and having their rear ends curved upwardly above the wheel, springs connected to the forward ends of arms and to a support, an armature fixed to the rear portion of the arms, and a magnet supported on the pole beneath the armature and arranged in a shunt-circuit from the main line substantially as described.

8. The combination, with the trolley pole and wheel, of arms pivoted on opposite sides of the pole beneath the wheel, said arms having their forward ends extending in front of the trolley-pole and connected with springs which press downwardly thereon and having their rear portions extending above the trolley-wheel and diverging toward the ends, an armature fixed to the rear portion of the arms, and a magnet beneath the armature arranged in the shunt-circuit from the main line, substantially as shown and described.

WILLIAM E. JACKSON, JR.

W i tnesses:

PHILIP S. NORTH,

B. ALEXANDER. 

